Now save the purple frog

Earlier this month when the United Nations declared the Western Ghats a World Heritage site,it stirred huge excitement among naturalists and conservationists.But critically endangered creatures like the nasikabatrachus the purple frog that looks rather unglamorous when compared to Indias flagship species,the tiger are fighting their own battle for survival in the Ghats.

The significance of the Western Ghats is very different from any other tourism site in India where crowds flock in packed jeep safaris.It is a region with a potential to discover unknown species and is home to many lesser known,fast-disappearing species like nasikabatrachus,which is believed to have lived with the dinosaurs 300 million years ago.But does the heritage tag ensure adequate cover for the region Naturalists and activists working in the Ghats fear that the tag may just remain a fancy inscription on signboards with no power to fight the powerful mining,power and industry lobbies.They say its completely up to the Indian government to save the Ghats for posterity.

Western Ghats is the first global cluster of natural sites to be declared world heritage.Environmentalists believe the government should use this opportunity to set an example for other important biodiversity clusters.The first thing that the government of India needs to ensure is connectivity in the Ghats that has been disturbed by mini hydel projects and road projects.Its conservation has to be comparable to other famous sites like the Grand Canyon, says Jagdish Krishnaswamy of the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment.

Many feel the government campaigned persistently to get the heritage tag for Western Ghats but did hardly anything on the ground to stop habitat fragmentation.Hundreds of mini hydel projects in various hill streams were cleared despite the evidence of its negative impact on water flow.A recent report by the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel exposed how deforestation for timber in catchments areas,river valley projects and plantations had drastically reduced the capacity of hill streams.Mini hydel projects have also led to continuous stretches of rivers drying up irreparably.

Most mining leases in Goa are located in and around Wildlife Sanctuaries (WLS) and forest areas.For example,31 leases are within 2 km of WLS,of which 7 are working mines;13 leases are within one km of WLS.Over half of the 300-odd mining leases in Goa are located close to water bodies.Indias proposal to include 39 sites in the Western Ghats as world heritage was rejected by the World Heritage Committee in its 35th meeting last year.When the proposal for it was submitted again this year,the Indian team managed to convince the committee.But the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN),based on its field evaluation,recommended to the committee to defer declaring the Western Ghats a heritage site.

It suggested instead that the Indian government should follow the recommendations made recently by the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) in its report.The report,however,has not been accepted by many state governments because it recommends restriction of infrastructure projects,including mining,in eco-sensitive areas.

S D Biju,noted amphibian biologist who discovered the purple frog in Kerala,says the Ghats deserves a special conservation plan.The Indian subcontinents prolonged isolation in its geological history is thought to be responsible for the uniqueness seen in the Western Ghats biotic assemblages.During the isolation period of this landmass the fauna and flora were believed to have undergone diversification forming life forms unique to the region.The Western Ghats contains a lot of relict species, he says,adding that many species in the Ghats may be going extinct even before being discovered.